Matthew scbannage



(No Model.)

M. SORANNAGE L Signal Apparatus for Railways.

No. 242,228. Patented May 31,1881."

' Fig- Inventor 7 4 4 7 met? N. PEIERS. FholoLilhagmpher. Washingmn. D. C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MATTHEW SORANNAGE, OF MEDFORD, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND JAOOB JOHNSON, OF NEWBUBYPORT, MASS; SAID SORANNAGE AND JOHNSON ASSIGNORS TO THEMSELVES, GEORGE W. M ORRILL, OF AMESBURY, MASS, AND DANIEL \V. SANBORN, OF PORTLAND, ME.

SIGNAL APPARATUS FOR RAILWAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 242,228, dated May 31, 1881.

' Application filed February 21, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MATTHEW SORANNAGE, of Medford, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Signal Apparatus for Railways; and 1 do hereby declare the same to be described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which Figure 1 is a side elevation, Fig. 2 a longitudinal section, Fig. 3 a front-end view, and 4 a transverse section, of an apparatus or signalizer provided with my invention, the nature of which is defined in the claims hereinafter made.

The said signalizer is to notify a car or train or an engine, on reaching the station of the signalizer, of the period of time that may have intervened between the arrival of the car or train or engine at such station and the departure therefrom of another car or train or engine in advance, the object being to prevent the rear car, train, or engine from colliding with the advanced one.

Collisions of trains have frequently occurred 2 5 by reason of the engineer or conductor of such supposing a train in advance to be at a required distance ahead oras having passed ordeparted from a station in timei'or the arrival of the train in rear.

\Vith my signalizer the time that may have elapsed since the departure of a train from the signalizer-station will be indicated by the column of colored fluid of the glass tube of the instrument, it being supposed that such time 3 5 is to be less than a given period-as five minutes, for instance. Thus by the distance the top of the column of fluid may have fallen since the departure of an advance train the conductor or engineer of a rear train can judge of 40 the time that may have elapsed since the station was left by the advance train.

1n the drawings, A denotes a glass tube arranged vertically and supported at its opposite ends in stuffing-boxes a b at the ends of 4 5 two conduits or tubes, B 0, arranged as shown.

The longer, B, of these tubes turns downward parallel to the glass tube and opens into the top of a receiver or bulb, D, out of whose botalcohol or fluid used in the apparatus, and I serves to keep the pump full of the liquid. The said pump has two chambers, a I), one of which is below the other and opens into it by a passage, 0, provided with a valve, (1,

to open upward. The upper chamber is to be furnished with a piston, a plunger, or, what is better, a flexile diaphragm or cap, 0, which at its middle is jointed to alever, G, fulcrumed to the pump and connected with a lever, H, arranged as shown, by a link or links, I. On pressing down the longer arm of the lever H the plunger or flexile diaphragm will be depressed, and when the upper chamber of the pump is tilled with the liquid such plunger will force such liquid through the tube O up into the glass tube A, the said tube 0 being made to open out of the upper chamber of the pump, and to be provided with a valve, f, to open upward, such valve constituting the eduction-valve of the force-.pum p.

Furthermore, there leads out of the tube O, above its valve, a small educt or tube, g, which opens into the bulb or receiver, or, in case of there being no such bulb, into the descending tube B, leading from the top of the glass tube down into or to the lower chamber of the pump.

A tl1be, H,provided with a screw-cap, 41, leads upward out of thelower chamber of the pump, and is to enable the apparatus to be supplied with alcohol as occasion mayrequire.

Furthermore, a tube, 70, of small diameter, leads out of the upper chamber of the pump into the return-tube B, and may be provided with a stop-cock, or may have a chamber and a valve to open upward therein 5 but these ap- 9 pliances or auxiliaries to the tube are by no means essential. The said tube is is to enable air which may collect in the upper chamber of the force-pump to be driven therefrom by the plunger into the return-tube without being 5 forced with the liquid into the tube 0 and thence into the glass tube A, as it would were the apparatus without the tube 7.. Air, when so driven into the tube A with the liquid, is liable to cause the latter to froth, and such froth to collect in the top of the descending column of liquid and prevent it from being properly seen.

If we suppose the apparatus to be duly charged with a colored liquid and to be arranged so that a train of cars, in passing along a railway, may run over the longer arm of the lever H, such lever will be moved as each wheel may pass across and in contact with it, the successive movements causing the pump piston or diaphragm to be moved up and down, whereby the liquid will be tlrawn into the pump, and by it be forced into and through the glass tube, the excess of liquid after the tube may be full passing into and down the return-tube B and into the bulb or receiver, from which theliquid will be extracted by the pump. On stoppage of the pump-piston the liquid in the glass tube will commence to descend therein, and by the eduetg will be discharged into the receiver or bulb.

If we suppose the eductg to be gaged, or of a size sufficient to discharge from the glass tube in five minutes acolumn of liquid equal in length to the distance betweenthe two stufiing-boxesot' the said glass tube, we shall have the apparatus for approximately, it not accurately, showing the period of time less than five minutes that may have elapsed after the departure of a train or car from the signalizcr-station. The apparatus is to be set up at the station in view of the conductor of any train or car that may pass such station, who by means of the apparatus or by the extent of the fall of the column of fluid in the glass tube can judge how Fara preceding train may have departed from the station or how long time may have elapsed since such train left the station in advance of the passing train. The rapidity of escape of the fluid from the charged glass tube will gradually decrease as the column of fluid may decrease in height, in consequence of which there should be marks on the tube or a scale or decimal parts to indicate the fall of the fluid for each minute of time.

flcxile diaphragm, as described, with the glass tubular column A, return-tube B, and the educt g, such ed act 9 being to lead out of the educt c and above the valve f thereof and into the tube B or its bulb or reservoir D, all being to operate substantially as and for the purpose as set forth.

2. The combination of the bulb or receiver D and tubeE with the force-pump F, provided with the induction-valve (I, eduction-valve f,

chambers a b, educt c, and piston or flexile diaphragm, as described, and also with the glass tubuar column A, retnrn-tube B, and the educt 9, such educt 9 being to lead out of the tube (3, above the valve f thereof, and into the bulb D, all being arranged and to operate substantially as and for the purpose or purposes as specified.

3. The combination of the air-conduit k with the force-pump and the glass tube A and its tubes B U and educt g, such tube k leading out of the return-tube B and into the upper chamber of the force-pump, all being arranged and to operate substantially as set forth.

4. The combination of the two levers G H and their connection I with the force-pump F, provided with the induction-valve d, eduction valvef, chambers a b, educt c, and piston or flexile diaphragm, as described, and also with the glass tubular column A, return-tube B,and the educt g, such educt g being to lead out of the tube 0, above the valve f thereof, and into the bulb D, all being connected and to operate substantially as described.

MAT HEW SURANNAGE.

\Vitnesses R. H. EDDY, E. B. PRATT. 

